The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

SARS alert at PGIMS: Separate ward if cases crop up
Our Correspondent

Rohtak, April 4
Pt B. D. Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences has been put on alert for handling and treating any suspected cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) as well its prevention.

The Medical Superintendent of the PGIMS today said that instructions had been issued to all departments concerned and all the doctors of the institution.

The instructions say that any person with a history of fever of more than 38 degree Celsius with respiratory symptoms like cough, breathlessness and history of travel to any of the countries having SARS epidemic like Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada etc during the last fortnight to one month or giving a history of contact with a patient having similar symptoms, would be segregated for observation for a maximum of ten days.

He said that all healthcare workers must wear gowns, gloves, masks and protective gear while treating a patient who is apparently suffering from SARS.

He said a separate ward (ward 16) has been earmarked as isolation ward for any suspected cases as and when needed.

He said the PGIMS authorities have decided that a lecture in this connection would be arranged for the faculty, resident doctors, nursing staff, paramedical staff as well as the district authorities on April 8 in the institute.

Post of prof at Law College

The Executive Council of Maharshi Dayanand University has approved the creation of one post of Professor for MDU National Law College, Gurgaon under self-financing scheme to be filled up on contractual basis. A decision to this effect was taken at an emergency meeting of the EC held here today under the chairmanship of Vice Chancellor Maj Gen (retd) Bhim Singh Suhag.

In all, three items were discussed in the meeting. The EC also approved a proposal for grant of selection grade under career advancement scheme to two former assistant librarians - Dr V. D. Sharma and Mr N. S. Vats. The council considered the inquiry report in case of Dr Arun Nanda, Reader, Pharmacy Department

Check for that extra sugar in your blood
during DDRC drive
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 4
The Delhi Diabetes Research Centre (DDRC) is conducting a massive health awareness campaign in various parts of the country for the fifth time in a row. The campaign will not only address diabetes, diet, yoga, physique and fitness but would also provide blood sugar test, blood pressure checks and heart check-ups on the spot free of cost. It aims at rendering maximum health benefits to the general public, especially women and children.

The campaign expects to provide free medical services to more than 15,000 people drawn from Dehra Dun, Assam, UP, Bihar and Rajasthan this time. The campaign will be launched on April 6 from the Talkatora Stadium.

“The programme would conclude with a serious take-home message with an emphasis on being fit and fine,” says Dr A. K. Jhingan, president of the DDRC. Specialists from different hospitals of Delhi like the AIIMS, Ganga Ram, Safdarjung and RML would participate in the campaign and explain to the public about various aspects of diabetes and its complications and how to prevent these. Important literature and informative material in Hindi and English on diabetes and lifestyle would be distributed free of cost.

Dr Jhingan said that the emphasis would be on diabetes as a diabolic disease, which in a clandestine way harms human body and mind. With over 3.5 crore persons suffering from diabetes in India, WHO has declared India as the ‘diabetes capital’ of the world. Every fifth patient visiting a consulting physician and every seventh patient visiting a family physician has diabetes.

There would also be counselling for both children as well as their parents by clinical psychologists.

Prevalence of Type-2 diabetes has been steadily increasing in urban areas to a whopping 14 per cent in 2000 among the adult population. There is an equally large pool of persons with Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT), many of who will go on to develop Type-2 diabetes in future. In fact, WHO has estimated that the number is likely to be 5.72 crore by 2025. The rapid increase in population, increased longevity and high ethnic susceptibility to diabetes, coupled with rapid urbanisation and changes from traditional lifestyle, will most likely trigger a diabetes epidemic.

“This campaign would serve as the best platform to the parents and children to clarify their doubts and queries about insulin from diabetic educators,” says Dr Anil Bansal, president of the DMA.

The campaign would progress with seminars and public interest lectures on mass appeal subjects. All these would be followed by question-answer sessions and queries would be answered by medical experts from different fields in medicine like endocrinology, cardiology, nephrology and ophthalmology.

SPORTS

Sabir, Shrishti win golf titles
Our Correspondent

Noida, April 4
Sabir Ahmad of Jammu and Kashmir and Shrishti Dhaon of Uttar Pradesh annexed the men’s and women’s titles respectively in the first National Golf Championship organised by the Uttar Pradesh Golf Association at the Noida Golf Club course.

Sabir Ahmed (0-9 handicap) won the title with a score of 232 while Varoon Parmar of Haryana (233) and Balwinder Singh of Punjab (236) emerged the first and second runner-up respectively.

In the men’s 10-18 handicap event, Shrikant Nagraj of Maharashtra carded 233 to annex the tile, while in the women’s section, Shrishti Dhaon with a score of 253 lifted the title. Mrs J. Chaudhary of Madhya Pradesh finished as the first runner-up with a score of 256 while Mrs Ashna Monga scored 268 points to take the second runner-up spot.

Mohinder Singh of Chandigarh carded 231 to win the junior boys title. He was followed by Harinder Singh of Chandigarh with 235 points and Pradeep Kumar of M P with 244 points as the first and second runner-up.

Jammu and Kashmir emerged winners in the men’s section, totalling 731 points while Chandigarh (725) and Punjab (735) took the second and third position. In the women’s section, the team title was won by Madhya Pradesh, followed by Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Mr Randhir Singh, sec retary-general of the Indian Olympic Association, gave away the prizes. Mr Mohd Aslam Khan, vice-president of the Indian Olympic Association, Mr Munawar Anzar, director-administration and protocol, Indian Golf Federation, Mr Gurbir Singh Sandhu, president, Netball Association of India and Mr P. V. Jagan Mohan, Secretary (Sports), UP were also present.

Bright Club, IA sail into semis
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, April 4
Bright Club and Indian Airlines sailed into the semi-finals of the Davinder Singh Memorial Cricket Tournament for the Tara Devi Mathur Trophy on Friday.

A strokeful century by Rajender Bisht, who hit 100, studded with eight fours and two sixes, and deadly bowling of 3 for 25 by left-arm spinner Aprajit Singh helped Bright Club defeat Inborn Club by 27 runs at the Kalindi College ground.

Scores: Bright Club: 283 for 7 in 45 overs (Rajender Bisht 100, Vivek Kumar 66, Suresh Tanwar 4 for 65). Inborn: 256 all out in 44.1 overs (Sonu Vaid 94, Rohit Jagota 34, Suresh Tanwar 38, Aprajit Singh 3 for 25, Rajender Bisht 3 for 20). Rajender was named the man of the match.

Haryana Ranji Trophy player Shafiq Khan scored 109, off 89 balls with 11 fours and four sixes, to help Indian Airlines crush Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) by 129 runs at the Central Secretariat ground.

Scores: Indian Airlines: 304 for 5 in 40 overs (Shafiq Khan 109, Rajat Bhatia 66 n o, R R Parida 54, Ravneet Ricky 32, A Anand 2 for 60).

CWC: 175 for 9 in 40 overs (Kuldeep Rawat 52, Ravneet Ricky 3 for 24, R P Singh 2 for 29). Shafiq Khan was named the man of the match.

Indian Airlines will take on Sonnet in the first semi-final match on Saturday at the Harbaksh Singh Stadium.

24 teams for Om Nath Sood Cricket tourney
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, April 4
Twenty-four teams will take part in the 13th All-India Om Nath Sood Memorial Cricket Tournament starting at the Harchand Singh Longowal Sports Complex, SGTB Khalsa College, on Saturday.

The participating teams include defending champions Indian Airlines, runners-up Lal Bahadur Shastri Club, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Air Sahara, Sonnet, R R Gymkhana, State Bank of Patiala, Rajasthan Colts, Khelkood Samajik Utthan Samiti XI, Varanasi, Ace XI, Agra, Indian Air Force, Food Corporation of India, Central Warehousing Corporation, Delhi Development Authority, Youngsters, Delhi Police, Inborn, Gush Club, Bright, Chand Khanna, South Delhi, DSI XI and Rajdhani Sports.

All the matches will be played on turf wicket. Delhi Police will take on Delhi Blues in the opening match on Saturday at 8 am.

Sachin Rana hits ton

Sachin Rana of Haryana hit a century to star in R P Academy’s 54-run victory against Delhi Cricket Academy in the second Rajdhani Cup Cricket Tournament at the Najafgarh Sports Club ground. Sachin Rana received the man of the match award.

Scores: R P Academy: 201 for 6 in 35 overs (Sachin Rana 100, Navdeep Tomar 49 n o, Suresh Batra 2 for 18, Ashok Kumar 2 for 48).

West Delhi Cricket Association: 147 for 8 in 35 overs (Virat Kohli 46, Suresh Batra 32, Sharad Kumar 2 for 15, Navdeep Tomar 2 for 33, Amit Kumar 2 for 33).

Hutch beat Hero Honda

Hutch defeated Hero Honda by six wickets in the Reebok Cricket Tournament.

Scores: Hero Honda: 110 all out in 23 overs (Raghuveer Singh 33 n o, 33b, 4x3, 6x1; Viraat 2 for 14, Anil 2 for 20, Tanmay 2 for 24).

Hutch: 111 for 4 in 22 overs (Sumit 41, 42b, 4x6, 6x1; Ather Ali 23, 43b, 4x2; Satish Sharma 3 for 17). Sumit was named the man of the match.

CII felicitates Ashish Nehra
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi , April 4
The Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) felicitated cricketer Ashish Nehra for his outstanding performance in the World Cup Cricket Championship in South Africa recently. The function was attended by several former cricketers and members of the industry.

Nehra was welcomed by CII Sports Committee member Uday Sodhi. Nehra had an interactive session with the audience, and answering a pointed question, he said though the match against England was a “personal landmark”, India’s victory against Pakistan was “cherished by the entire team”.

He said the Indian pace trio of Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan and he himself had a “wonderful outing in the World Cup, except for the final”.

Former India player Atul Wassan said the public outrage after India’s defeat at the hands of Australia was an act of overreaction.

Former Indian captain Bishan Singh Bedi said the preparation of the Indian team for the 2007 World Cup “must start now, and for that, equal importance must be given to domestic cricket, which is the nursery for fresh talent to bloom”.

Diplomatic Cup Golf today
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, April 4
The annual Diplomatic Cup Golf Tournament between the diplomatic corps and the Ministry of External Affairs will be held on Saturday at the Classic Golf Resort from 7 am.

Matchplay golf

The SRF All-India Matchplay Golf Championship will be held at the Delhi Golf Club course from April 7 to 12. The tournament offers Rs 10 lakh in prize money with the winner getting Rs 1,75,000 and the runner-up Rs 1,00,000.

Jeev Milkha Singh, Amandeep Johl and Mukesh Kumar will be some of the top players vyeing for the Matchplay Championship title.

Health Run on Sunday

The Health Fitness Trust will organise a Health Run on the eve of the World Health Day on Sunday at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Labour Vijay Goel and Member of Parliament Kirti Azad will flag off the races. Over 5000 runners are expected to participate in the run.

Jyoti, Rekha win in Delhi Wrestling
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, April 4
Jyoti of Najafgarh Akhara and Rekha of DESU posted comfortable victories in the women’s section of the Delhi State Wrestling Championship, which began at the Border Security Force (BSF) campus at Chhawla, on Thursday.

Jyoti got the better of Pooja of Naya Bans Akhara in sudden death in the 67kg category while Rekha outpointed Kusum of Naya Bans Akhara by one point in extra time, after they were tied on eight points at the end of the regulation six-minute bout, in the 46kg category.

Vinod Kumar beat Jogendra of Najafgarh Akhara by points at 5-3 in the 66kg category.

Mr A K Mitra, additional director general of BSF, inaugurated the championship. Inspector-General (Hq) S. S. Kushwah, Deputy Inspector General (training) S. K. Dutta, Commandant (Sports) S. C. Negi and Raj Singh, chairman, Delhi Wrestling Association, were also present. Over 400 wrestlers, including 50 women, are taking part in the championship.